Women’s Economic Empowerment in Jordan, a are turned into real results for Jordanian women and the National Priority society at large. While there are no silver bullets, there are many entry points and options to consider and this note The Government of Jordan has strengthened its presents some of them.1 commitment in recent years to gender equality and women’s social and economic empowerment through The note touches on societal and household level issues Jordan’s Renaissance Plan 2019-2020 and more recently such as existing social norms; the enabling environment through the preparation of the Women’s Economic provided by the legal framework; specific constraints to Empowerment Action Plan under the Mashreq Gender women’s economic activity that are pronounced in the Facility. Furthermore, the Jordan National Commission Jordan context such as access to care provisions and for Women is coordinating the development of the transport; access to entrepreneurship and finance, with a National Women’s Strategy, encompassing the focus on technology-enabled services; and what may be government’s vision of women’s empowerment and the considered to attract more Jordanian women in the rural national plans that address different areas of gender areas to engage in employment in the agriculture sector. equality. Given the saturation of the public sector in terms of employment, the focus is specifically on areas in which the private sector may play a leading role. There is an unprecedented opportunity to support the Government of Jordan’s explicit commitment to enhancing women’s access to economic opportunities, by The Problem: Women’s Lack of Economic providing a combination of financial resources and Opportunities in Jordan is Negatively Impacting technical assistance that will ensure these commitments Development The lack of access to economic opportunities for women in Jordan manifests itself in low labor force participation rate (15 percent), high unemployment (23 percent) and a negligible entrepreneurship rate. Gender gaps in employment, in entrepreneurship and in access to finance entail substantial economic losses not only for the women, but also for households and the entire societies due to the underutilization of available human capital. Adequate access to economic opportunities is essential for both men and women to live dignified lives and become active social agents. 2 Enhancing women’s economic activity makes sense from both a micro and macroeconomic point of view. By providing women with access to paid work in the form of wages or entrepreneurial income will reduce poverty and expand the middle class by enabling households to count on more than one source of income In addition, excluding half of the population from restrictive social norms. On the other hand, there are not economic and social life can be very costly. It has been enough jobs in the labor market to attract women. Thus, estimated that the MENA region loses up to USD 575 facilitating women’s access to work will require billion in regional income due to the current levels of addressing both supply and demand side constraints. gender-based discrimination in laws, social norms and practices that constrain women’s rights and opportunities. Social norms. A complex system of social norms Women only generate 18 percent of GDP in the MENA involving the household, extended family, communities region, compared to a world average of 37 percent. and society at large contributes to low rates of economic Increasing women’s economic activity to the levels of men participation among women. Over 80 percent of could boost regional GDP by 47 percent. 3 Jordanians believe that when jobs are scarce men should have more rights to a job than women, and over 70 Improving women’s economic opportunities entails not percent consider that men make better business only improving their access to the labor market and to executives than women. 4 However, individual beliefs of entrepreneurship opportunities but also providing decent Jordanian men and women are more progressive than working conditions, including freedom from all forms of what they expect society to think when it comes to discrimination and harassment and access to decent women’s employment, which provides an important entry wages -including equal pay for work of equal value, as point to build on to nudge more women into becoming well as training and promotion opportunities. economically active. For instance, 96 percent of Jordanians believe – on a personal level - that it is Key Obstacles to Women’s Economic acceptable for women to work, but at the same time they Participation and Select Entry Points to Address do believe that about a third of society finds it Them unacceptable for women to work (both in and outside the Low female labor force participation can be attributed to home). In addition, 60 percent of non-working women both supply and demand factors. On one hand, Jordanian actually wants to work.5 While prevailing social norms and women do not supply their labor because of – among preferences cut across and influence the different other factors - certain legal barriers, household and care constraints to women’s increased economic responsibilities and lack of proper transportation opportunities, certain activities may contribute to the solutions. These factors are closely interlinked with gradual change of restrictive attitudes and behaviors. boards, and firm level reporting on gender indicators. • Enact legal amendments to address decent work conditions, women’s mobility and women’s status as heads of households. • Guide the private sector (manuals, advice and capacity building) on compliance requirements, improve the labor inspection process and enforce decent working conditions. Care economy. Expanding investment in the care economy and closing gaps in service provision can yield a double dividend by increasing job creation, especially for women, while freeing time for other women to work. Improving access to care provision has proven to be World Bank. 2018. Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan – effective in increasing mothers’ likelihood of working Understanding How Gender Norms in MNA Impact Female across several countries and in improving early childhood Employment Outcomes. Washington, DC: World Bank Group. development outcomes.6 Child care and elderly care, in addition to domestic services, are underdeveloped sectors in Jordan. Policy measures and regulatory • Conduct behavior change focused reforms are required for these important sub-sectors of communication campaigns aimed at shifting the care economy to flourish, create jobs and contribute men’s and women’s perceptions and aspirations to economic growth. around women’s roles in the household and in society. Identify positive role models. Engage • Public sector provision of child care services with men and community leaders. should be expanded, fiscal space permitting. • Remove stereotypes in school curricula. • Stimulate private provision of child care by enforcing employer’s obligation to provide child Legal framework. Since 2017, the Government of Jordan care services and granting them flexibility in has enacted reforms related to flexible work terms of provision modalities, through relevant arrangements, employer-provided child care and the regulations. removal of restrictions to women working in certain sectors and during certain hours. While these changes • Streamline the regulatory framework for licensing are likely to impact women’s economic participation in and operating a child care facility for all types of Jordan in the long run, enforcement mechanisms are child care providers, from large ones to NGO or required to facilitate their implementation by relevant family-run and micro providers. Private sector government agencies. This is particularly the case for the provision could be further promoted through well removal of work restrictions, the institution of a Code of designed stimulus packages involving, as in other Conduct in addressing sexual harassment in the countries, fiscal incentives for different types and workplace and in public spaces and employer provision of sizes of care provision. child care. • Conduct a market assessment on elderly care to • Raise awareness among women (and men) of capture level of investments needed and their their rights in the work force and of flexible work potential returns and assess supply and demand arrangements available to them. for formal care services. • Explore new policies, such as the extension of • Implement the National Health Strategy’s retirement age for women to improve their access recommendations on home healthcare, starting to assets and the introduction of parental leave with a rigorous costing exercise of such services for men. in coordination with relevant syndicates. Industry standards should be put in place and carefully • Promote new practices, such as the digitization of enforced. wage payments to minimize gender-based pay gaps, the introduction of quotas for women on • Support private provision of home care services through the improvement of the regulatory framework to cover a broader range of home care • Improve women-led businesses’ access to services and related professions. Time and cost markets by expanding their information and of licensing care providers should be reduced to knowledge regarding public procurement incentivize the entry of new players. processes. Consider a quota for women- owned/led firms in public procurement contracts. • Create new work force trainings and skills certifications to be offered in nursing schools, • Set up special equity funds that support women- vocational training centers and universities, led businesses’ access to finance. Special especially for semi or non-medical care workers guarantee funds could be put in place for lending to expand the pool of qualified care workers. to women, access to digital finance could be expanded in rural areas with women supported to • Attract foreign investors in child care and elderly act as payment agents. For women to build their care services and offer incentives to set up credit history through microfinance, the Credit operations in Jordan and drive up quality Bureau could be allowed to record smaller loans. standards. Information about lending terms and conditions should be improved to remedy the observed Entrepreneurship technology and finance. In Jordan, default rate among women borrowing at only 19 percent of businesses are co-owned by women microfinance institutions. and not even three percent of firms has a woman as the top manager. 7 In addition, few women are businesses owners: in 2018, only four percent of working women were employers or own account workers compared to 13 percent of working men.8 In a nutshell, businesses owned by women tend to be rare, small, seasonal, informal and home-based, confined in low productivity activities and with limited access to markets. • Support the formalization and access to larger formal markets for micro-enterprises and home- based businesses with a potential to grow beyond subsistence. Further streamline the regulatory framework for home-based businesses. Transport. Lack of safe transport options can translate into girls missing schools, women not looking for jobs far • Design and provide a package of policies and away from their homes, giving up their jobs or being support services to women entrepreneurs to unable to access health or childcare services. A foster entrepreneurship spirit, improve significant share of women and youth in Jordan report that managerial practices and business networks they reject job offers due to lack of transportation. through a suite of trainings, mentoring and networking activities, delivered through public • Improve public transportation by expanding knowledge stations to be turned into incubators, coverage, quality and safety of services is critical private incubators, vocational training centers, to women’s economic participation. Investments and universities. are underway, by the Government of Jordan, to expand transportation services by introducing • Provide women entrepreneurs in all sectors with new modes of transport in response to large incubation services, considering the introduction numbers of commuters for work and study. of quotas in the public knowledge stations. In addition to classic business incubation, for • Address concerns of harassment in public example, kitchen incubators may be a relevant transport, by women and their families, through service to offer to the many women in the food the implementation of the recently developed sector in Jordan. Code of Conduct for the transport sector. • Support women’s access to technology through • Facilitate the employment of more women in the e-commerce platforms, as they have the power to sector, especially by large operators or women as improve access to markets by enabling sales ride-sharing drivers. without having to travel. The ecosystem for e- commerce should be improved through, notably, better logistics and expanded digital payment services. Agriculture. In rural areas, only three percent of women • Enact sectoral policies to develop post-harvest engage in paid agricultural work,9 driven by the need to logistics and supporting investments in generate income and meet household expenses. 10 agricultural technology will create good quality Foreign workers dominate the sector, but Jordanians are jobs for women in sorting, grading and packaging open to working in agriculture under the right activities. circumstances. 11 Over half of the women engaged in agricultural activities are below the age of 40, are likely to be married with children and with low levels of education.12 They mostly work 22 days per month and 7 hours per day, earning, on average, between JD 105 and 142 per month.13 • Enhance employment conditions to attract more Jordanians to fill in the labor shortages gap. Start by regulating employment in the agricultural sector through issuing implementation To learn more, see the publication World Bank. 2019. regulations to the Labor Law and enforcing Jordan: Improving Women’s Economic decent working conditions through inspection and Opportunities, Select Entry Points for Policy advisory service to the employers. Subsidizing Dialogue and Operational Interventions. Washington, the provision of mobile child care solutions is DC: World Bank Group. Authors: Meriem Ait Ali Slimane, another way to attract women in agriculture and Jonna Lundwall, Komal Mohindra, Nato Kurshitashvili, improve early childhood development in rural Shereen Abbadi and Ola Hisou. areas.